SCO anti-terrorist drills to show SCO potential in security area.

10/9 Tass 177

ALMATY, September 10 (Itar-Tass) -- The Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO) joint antiterrorist drills Peace Mission 2010, which
started in Kazakhstan on Friday, are called to demonstrate the
organization's potential in ensuring security in the region, a top-ranking
defence official from Kazakhstan said.
"Such large-scale exercises involving SCO member states are sure to
become an event of paramount importance for the organization. They will
show the world community that the SCO has everything needed to secure
stability and security in the region, that it can independently defy the
present-day threats and challenges," Colonel General Saken Zhasuzakov, the
chairman of Kazakhstan's committee of chiefs of staff, said after the
military and political consultations of Chiefs of General Staffs from the
SCO countries that were held in Almaty on Friday in view of the Peace
Mission 2010 drills.
"Participants in the consultations discussed proposals to use troops
in settling potential crisis situations. The consultations yielded
instructions signed by the Chiefs of General Staffs to prepare and hold a
joint antiterrorist operation, and the drills were announced started,"
Colonel Oleg Yushkov, the aide to the drill's commander from the Russian
side, told Itar-Tass.
"Participants in the consultations also discussed the global and
regional situation, cooperation among SCO member states in the area of
defence and security, and other issues of common interest," he noted.
This is the seventh SCO antiterrorist exercise. Its purpose is to
practice interoperability in responding to terrorist emergencies in the
region. The three-stage exercise at the Matybulak range in Kazakhstan will
engage over 5,000 troops and 500 hardware from Russia, China, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Russia sent over a thousand men and 130 armor,
as well as 10 aircraft and helicopters deployed at its Kant base in
Kyrgyzstan. China and Kazakhstan are represented by a similar force, while
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan dispatched smaller units.
The active phase of the exercise will begin on September 24 and will
train preparations and conduct of a joint anti-terrorist operation.
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